Preston Park (officially Preston Hall Park) is a public park in
Preston-on-Tees
Preston-on-Tees, locally called Preston, is a village and civil parish in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 1,689. It is home to Preston Hall and it's accompanying pub ...
, England. It hosts multiple events each year and is located next to the
River Tees
The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...
.
Parking is free, but the Preston Park Museum & Grounds and Butterfly World have small admission charges.
The land was originally a private residence with large grounds but has since become the property of
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It provides a full range of local government servi ...
after being purchased from Sir
Robert Ropner
Sir (Emil Hugo Oscar) Robert Ropner, 1st Baronet (born Röpner; 16 December 1838 – 26 February 1924) was a German-British shipbuilder, shipowner, and Conservative Member of Parliament.
Career
Ropner was born in 1838 in Magdeburg, Province of ...
.
and was redeveloped in 2010–12, with the Museum reopening in 2012.
The museum has a volunteer community with its participants ranging from students to the retired. They carry out roles in the Museum such as gardening, gallery stewarding, supporting learning and costumed interpreters on the
Victorian Street.
Areas of interest
Preston Park is made up of several diverse areas:
Hall museum
It was not until 1882, when the estate and lands were sold to Robert Ropner for the princely sum of £27,500 (£1,328,525.00 in modern money), that the
Preston Hall building of today was built.
Ropner was a wealthy shipping and industrial magnate and in common with the style of the times demanded a home to befit his status in society. Major alterations included the addition of a Winter Garden, Music Room, Billiard Room, entrance portico and extensive landscaped parkland – all ‘must haves’ of the Victorian age.
![Preston Park Museum (32665030053)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Preston_Park_Museum_%2832665030053%29.jpg)
The Hall & Park were served by legions of staff, from a butler and cook through to maids and stable hands. Gardeners would tend the grounds and supply the kitchen with produce from the walled garden, which was restored and reopened to the public in 2012.
In 1937 the Hall & Park passed into the hands of a number of companies before being purchased by Stockton Corporation (now the Borough Council) in 1947.The site officially opened as Preston Hall Museum and Park in 1953 and has continued to bring pleasure to generations of visitors young and old ever since.
Following a successful bid for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, the Museum and Park have recently reopened following extensive redevelopment work. The £7 million transformation has seen significant improvements to facilities, including better access, the repair and conservation of the Grade II listed building and the development of further features, interpretation and exhibits.
Exhibits in the museum include the
Yarm helmet
The Yarm helmet is a ca 10th-century Viking age helmet that was found in Yarm in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is the first relatively complete Anglo-Scandinavian helmet found in Britain and only the second relatively complete/inta ...
, a c. 10th-century
Viking age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...
helmet
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protect ...
found in
Yarm
Yarm, also referred to as Yarm-on-Tees, is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. It was previously a port town before the industry moved down the River Tees to more accessible settlements ne ...
. It is the first relatively complete
Anglo-Scandinavian helmet found in Britain and only the second Viking helmet discovered in north-west Europe.
Showground
The flat, grassed area in front of the main house is now the main staging ground for large events held in the park. It is easily able to hold the largest of circus tents and other temporary structures. When not being used for an event, this area will often contain people playing sports or picnicking with their children. The field is used for training by a number of football teams and a local Frisbee team. However the field suffers from drainage problems, meaning that it often becomes waterlogged.
Teesside Small Gauge Railway
Across the showground from the car park is a model engineering club with a miniature railway. It operates to the public during the summer on Sunday afternoons and on bank holidays from 1pm to 4pm.
Butterfly World
This building houses an environment specially controlled to allow a variety of exotic
butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
to thrive. There is a charge for entry.
Café and Play Area
![Preston Park Cafe - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Preston_Park_Cafe_-_geograph.org.uk_-_567830.jpg)
Beside the main car park is a café operated by Stockton Borough Council.
Adjacent to the café is an extensive play area containing a variety of traditional swings and more adventurous climbing equipment for children of all ages.
Skatepark
A concrete
skatepark
A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, q ...
opened on the site of the former crazy-golf course in 2014. The project was built by Wheelscape and cost £25,000. The skatepark is vary varied and suits a wide range of skill levels.
Quarry Wood
![Quarry Wood - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Quarry_Wood_-_geograph.org.uk_-_282322.jpg)
The Quarry Wood was declared a nature reserve in 2004. It is a former Victorian Quarry that has now been reclaimed by nature.
This is a popular place for younger mountain bikers, with the main attraction being "The Dippers". These are a series of dirt jumps and gravel corners created by the natural terrain. They are mostly fenced off in an attempt to protect the public from out-of-control bikes.
"The Big Dipper" is a 15 ft-deep cut in the ground which is used as a kind of
half-pipe
A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, skating, and scooter riding.
Overview
The structure resembles a cross-section of a swimming pool, essentially two concave ramp ...
. From the top of the slope, riders can aim at a variety of take-off points on the other side, each of which provides differing amounts of "
air time".
There are a variety of smaller jumps nearby, as well as some rougher cycling routes.
Furthermore, Quarry Wood is home to a wide spectrum of wildlife including frogs, toads, newts, foxes, rabbits and birds such as moorhen and owls, as well as a host of invertebrates.
Previous Attractions
The
world's first passenger railway ran through the grounds beside the main road from the early 19th century until 1852. There was no station.
In the 1970s and 80s there was a small zoo within the park, partly covering the area now used by the playground and stretching down to the hall. It famously had a penguin enclosure. There were also
llama
The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era.
Llamas are social animals and live with othe ...
s and
chipmunk
Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia.
Taxonomy and systematics
Chipmunks may be classified either as ...
s, among others.
Previously in front of the café was a simple
crazy golf
Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...
course. However it was removed in 2014 to make way for the skatepark.
Relocation of Egglescliffe School
In 2009 it was proposed by Ingleby Barwick Councillors that
Egglescliffe School
Egglescliffe School & Sixth Form College is a large Coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Egglescliffe, area also known as Eaglescliffe. It is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England.
History
Beginning as ...
be relocated to the park with a footbridge over the river linking the school to the town.
The proposal was backed by the then MP for Stockton South,
Dari Taylor
Dari Jean Taylor (''née'' Jones; born 13 December 1944) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton South between the 1997 and 2010 general elections.
Biography
Taylor was born into a staunch Lab ...
, but was strongly opposed by many residents because it would have meant the loss of valuable public parkland.
The Conservative candidate for the
Stockton-South seat,
James Wharton, also opposed the proposal before narrowly winning the seat in the
2010 election. Leaflets from Dari Taylor's party have since expressed regret for not opposing the development of Preston Park.
The proposal for the development (coded option D2) has now been removed as a viable option. The reasons given are that funding for the new footbridge would not have come from central government, and that "During the feasibility work undertaken, the location of the proposed bridge also raised significant engineering issues. In addition to this, any additional traffic from a community school facility could not be accommodated without significant upgrading of the road network.", and that the Preston Park allotments would have had to be moved.
From this issue was also born 'Friends of Preston Park', a group consisting of members of the public that raises any issues that become apparent to visitors and presents them to the management of Preston Park during meetings.
References
External links
Preston Hall Museum and ParkButterfly World
{{stockton
Borough of Stockton-on-Tees
Parks and open spaces in County Durham